titanium

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A strong, low-density, highly corrosion-resistant, lustrous white metallic element that occurs widely in igneous rocks and is used to alloy aircraft metals for low weight, strength, and high-temperature stability. Atomic number 22; atomic weight 47.87 melting point 1,660°C; boiling point 3,287°C; specific gravity 4.54; valence 2, 3, 4. See Table at element.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. As obtained by Moissan in the fused condition by means of an electric furnace, although not quite free from carbon, metallic titanium is not unlike silicon, but whiter, lustrous, very hard, but brittle, of specific gravity 4.87. It burns when heated in the air, and is attacked by the common mineral acids.
2. n. Chemical symbol, Ti; atomic weight, 48.1. A metal which is not found native, but as artificially prepared is a dark-gray powder having a decided metallic luster, and resembling iron in appearance. It occurs, in the form of the dioxid, in three different crystalline forms—rutile, brookite, and anatase—and is also found quite frequently in combination with the protoxid of iron, mixed with more or less of the peroxid of the same metal. (See ilmenite.) Titanium appears to be a pretty widely distributed element, having been found in many minerals and rocks, as well as in clays and soils resulting from their decomposition, but it nowhere occurs in considerable quantity in any one locality; it has also been detected in meteorites and in the sun. Titanium is very remarkable in its power of combining with nitrogeu at a high temperature. Certain copper-colored cubical crystals which are not infrequently found in the “bear” of blast-furnaces, and were supposed by Wollaston to be pure titanium, were shown by Wöhler to consist of a cyanonitrid of that metal. As titanium enters into the composition of so many iron ores, it is natural that it should have been found in many kinds of pig-iron. Its presence in small quantity does not appear to have an injurious effect. A considerable number of patents have been taken out for supposed improvements in the manufacture of iron and steel in which titanium has played an important part. So-called “titanic steel” was at one time extensively advertised as being of unrivaled excellence; but several chemists of high reputation have declared themselves unable to detect any titanium in it. The chemical relations of titanium are peculiar: in some respects it stands midway between tin and silicon; in other ways it is allied to iron, chromium, and aluminium.

Wiktionary

1. n. A chemical element, atomic number 22; it is a strong, corrosion-resistant transition metal, used to make light alloys for aircraft etc.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Chem.) An elementary substance found combined in the minerals manaccanite, rutile, sphene, etc., and isolated as an infusible iron-gray amorphous powder, having a metallic luster. It burns when heated in the air. Symbol Ti. Atomic weight 48.1.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a light strong grey lustrous corrosion-resistant metallic element used in strong lightweight alloys (as for airplane parts); the main sources are rutile and ilmenite